Seeing Steve Martin on Parkinson when I was a kid. It's one of the weirdest TV interviews you'll ever see: Parkinson clearly didn't like his big, brash style. But I loved Martin's silliness; when I started performing as a poet, I would occasionally nick one of his lines and stick it in-between poems.

This is the first time you've done standup in 10 years. Why did you decide to return to it?

Because Eddie Izzard rang me up last year and told me to. I've known him for years; it was odd being made to account for myself by one of my peers. And because there's no better place to get started again than Edinburgh. If you do Edinburgh and Glastonbury every year, your life is worth living.

Has the Edinburgh fringe become too commercial?

People say that about anything that becomes successful. But nobody's holding a gun to your head, saying, "You've got to go and see all these shows at £10 a time." There's an amazing free fringe, too. If I'd been more together, I'd be doing a free poetry show, too.

I loved doing my play, Waiting for Alice, four years ago. It was about Tweedledum and Tweedledee; I alternated the parts with my co-star, Andre Vincent. It got listed under comedy rather than theatre: everyone expected it to be funny, when it was actually a play about duality and madness and conflict. But I loved it, because before that I'd never realised I could actually write.

What's the best heckle you've ever had?

Most heckles are rubbish; they're not about the show, just people showing off in front of their mates. But once in a while you get a heckle that's spontaneous and perfect. The best one I ever got was in London, when I did six gigs in a night. My last gig was at 2am; a guy at the side of the stage said to me, almost inaudibly, "You've already done this bit." I looked down at him and said, "Very good."

My self-respect. One particular example is a gig I did once with the Who. I only found out on the day that I was being put on in the interval; even I would have booed me off.

How would you like to be remembered?

Fondly. But I'll probably just be "that bloke off that thing".

In short

Born: Newport, Isle of Wight, 1962

Career: Started out as a performance poet, then moved into standup, TV presenting and musicals. He performs his show Stand Down at the Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh (0131-558 7272; edfringe.com) until 28 August.